Working with Federation (Office SharePoint Server)

Unless otherwise noted, the information in this article applies to Office SharePoint Server 2007 with the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers.

In Office SharePoint Server 2007 with the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers installed, federation enables end users to issue a query that searches multiple sources and displays results in separate Web Parts on a single search results page. These sources can be enterprise content repositories, other search engines, or portions of your Office SharePoint Server 2007 index. Using federation enables you to provide more extensive query results for your users without devoting your server resources to crawling and indexing content.

The following articles provide information to help you understand and use federation.

Federated Search Overview (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=111617) This article provides a more technical overview of federation concepts. It discusses the differences between indexing and federation, the details of a federated location, representation of federation to the end user, and programmatic access to federation.

The following technical articles on MSDN discuss common federation customizations and guide the technical administrator or developer in creating more complex federated connectors. A complex connector is required when the source is not the local search index and does not natively provide a searchable feed. These articles were written for Search Server 2008 but also apply to Office SharePoint Server 2007 with the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers installed.

Customizing the Search User Interface (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=123770) This article contains multiple topics that address the most common visual customization scenarios for federation. The article walks you through the rendering transformation (XSLT) for federated locations and describes customizations you can use to change how the results are displayed in the federated search Web Parts.

Location Definition File Schema Reference (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=111092) This article discusses each element of the federated location definition schema. The article explains how locations are defined and how to create raw location definition (.fld) files.

The following technical articles on MSDN provide examples of federated connectors to sources that do not have searchable feeds. The articles include code samples and walkthroughs. These articles were written for Search Server 2008 but also apply to Office SharePoint Server 2007 with the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers installed.

HTML to RSS Federated Connector Sample (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=123772) This article includes a code sample to help explain how to create a federated connector that converts HTML into an RSS feed that can be consumed by a federated location.

Federation Code Samples (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=123773) This MSDN code gallery provides samples of federation connector code that is used in MSDN articles.